This posting is guaranteed one hundred percent cancer-free, because sometimes you just have to step back, have some fun and eat a little candy already. Besides, look how stinking’ cute these boys are. Braedan dressed as the Tin Man for Storybook Character Day at school. The kids in his class were wowed with his homemade costume constructed from a […]
There are many reasons why I write this blog everyday. A lot of it has to do with needing a place to process my own feelings, an outlet for expressing my fears and hopes and all the good and bad that comes along with childhood cancer. I often write to pass along information to all of you, my friends and family and […]
Back and forth, and back and forth, and back and forth. This is a terrible position for parents to be placed in. This is a terrible decision to have to make on behalf of our child. What’s the right answer? What will cause the least damage, to mind and to body and to spirit? What will […]
My mom has my Caring Today article sitting out on her counter to proudly show to anyone who walks through her door (we moms are all the same, aren’t we?). She must have read it yet again the other day because she commented on how she too interacts with Austin “with a great deal more […]
The mystery of Austin’s kidney continues with no easy resolution in sight. Yesterday’s ultrasound revealed that this shadow, this mass, actually appears to be filled with fluid. Now at first glance that seems like good news because Wilms’ tumors are solid tumors. But of course, there are things to worry about that we had never heard of […]
I think it’s sort of funny how much you all appreciated seeing my “human side” in that last post! I certainly have never meant to paint a picture of us as gliding right through this crisis (or these crises) without rearing our own sometimes ugly heads. We have handled it all very well, I’ll give […]
Thank you, yet again yet again, for the outpouring of support and well wishes coming our way. You can not possibly know how much strength we draw from all of you. Yesterday ended with better news. Not the good news we’d been expecting on Thursday, but definitely better news. Dr. Auletta spent a good chunk […]
And then we wait and we worry and we wish some more. But we don’t exhale with relief when the good news is delivered. Because it’s not good news that’s delivered. There’s another shadow. Another fucking shadow. God, this is the never-ending story. This shadow is actually inside the left kidney, which is really lousy. […]
It’s that time of year again. We head into the hospital tonight after dinner to hydrate Austin for a CT scan tomorrow. His last was in the end of June and if this one comes back clear, we’ll be able to wait six months until the next (a welcome break to be sure). We’re going […]
… always a teacher. Last Tuesday (the morning after our lovely evening in the ER), I had the opportunity to speak to a class of first year med students at Case. The professor is a friend of mine and was a regular reader of Austin’s Carepage. She teaches what she’s dubbed the “touchy-feely” coursework at […]